Even with modern protective footwear, ankle and foot injuries can be sustained in many activities and areas of work. Such injuries can result to a foot as a result of contact between the foot and another object. For example, a hockey player's foot may be injured when contacted by a hockey stick or puck, or a machinist's foot may be injured when contacted by a tool or a part.
Protecting the foot from injury can be difficult due to a number of factors. One such factor is that footwear is frequently designed with a minimal amount of protection from such injury, especially on the top and back of the footwear. Some specialized types of footwear, for example, ice hockey skates and steel-toed boots, often provide some protection against injury to some parts of the foot, but can fail to provide adequate protection to the top, sides, and back of the foot, as well as the ankle. This lack of protection can result in injuries to the foot, for example, tissue bruising, bone fractures, and lacerations.
Currently available devices which attempt to protect the foot from injury suffer from a number of shortcomings. Examples of such shortcomings include devices that are too heavy, devices that fail to protect the entire foot, devices that hinder a wearer's range of motion, and devices that do not fit snugly to the footwear, or are uncomfortable or ill-fitting.
Strap-on and tie-on type protectors for the ankle portion of footwear exist. For example, leather has been combined with cardboard and/or plastic to fabricate protective cups that can be strapped or tied onto the exterior of a piece of footwear to protect a wearer's ankle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,170 to Lutz, Jr. describes a removable protective shell cover molded into a boot-fitting shape. This shell cover covers the upper sides and tongue portion of the boot and partially covers the side portions of the boot. The shell cover is fastened by a strap that runs under the boot and by a strap that runs behind the ankle around the Achilles tendon. The straps each have a pad on one end to create a gap between the between the shell and the boot in an attempt to allow the shell to dissipate forces resulting from an impact to the cover. In addition, the laces of the skate are specifically used to facilitate the gap between the cover and the boot.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,567 to McClelland describes a removable protective cover for a hockey skate boot. The removable protective cover covers the sides, tongue, and partially covers ankle portions of the boot. The protective cover includes heel-cupping sidewall portions that flex apart diagonally to apply the cover to a boot and to secure the protective cover in place while a user operates straps to fasten the protective cover to the boot. One strap runs under the boot, and another strap runs behind the ankle around the Achilles tendon. Spaced pads are placed on the inside of the protective cover to create a gap between the protective shell and the boot in an effort to allow the shell to dissipate impact forces from the protective cover.
In contrast, various examples described below provide for a lightweight, removable protective footwear cover that can protect the entire foot from injury while allowing the wearer to maintain their range of motion.